LaShauna Brothers and Kaylynn Waters paved the way for the New Castle High girls basketball team Saturday.

Brothers and Waters netted 20 points each to lift the Lady ’Canes to a 67-52 win over Hampton in nonsection action.

Brothers snared a career-high 19 rebounds, with five assists and five steals. Waters added six boards.

“LaShauna played tremendous,” said first-year coach Jason Rankin. “She was able to play through foul trouble and pick up the slack on the boards where we were lacking; she did a little bit of everything for us.

“Kaylynn helped us a lot on defense and she stayed out of foul trouble.”

New Castle (13-2), ranked No. 2 in the WPIAL in Class AAA by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, trailed 32-24 in the waning moments of the second quarter. A late flurry closed the deficit to 32-29 at the break.

JaNia McPhatter made a pair of steals to ignite the run. She finished with 12 markers.

“JaNia did some dirty work for us; she really saved us in the second quarter,” Rankin said.

The Lady Talbots (11-4) scored the first five points of the second half before New Castle countered with a 13-1 run to take control. Brothers capped the third period with a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 47-42 margin.

The Lady ’Canes were 25 of 62 from the field and they were outrebounded by the taller Lady Talbots, 46-38.

“This was a total team effort,” Rankin said. “They played an aggressive zone and we rushed some shots. They contested pretty much everything we did.

“We scored 67 because we got some runouts in the second half.”

The matchup was a battle of the last two WPIAL Class AAA champions.

“Hampton has a good program in place and they expect to win like we do,” Rankin said. “To go on the road and beat them like we did is big.”

Adrianna Ferraro paced Hampton with 17 points.

New Castle returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Thursday when it hosts WPIAL Section 2-AAA foe Ambridge (2-3 section, 7-4 overall). The Lady ’Canes won the first matchup, 69-53.

“I think it will be good to get some time off,” Rankin said. “We played five games in 10 days so that rest will help us.”